“Despite our sluggish economy, shoppers proved they are looking for value and ready to buy if given a good customer experience,” said ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin. “Still, it’s just one day. It remains to be seen whether consumers will sustain this behavior through the holiday shopping season. ”

MarketWatch/Andria Cheng

For the first time, Best Buy set up monitors outside 120 stores on which shoppers waiting in line could watch movies and television programs.

According to the National Retail Federation, a record 226 million shoppers hit the stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up 6.6% from 212 million last year. The average shopper spent about $400 this weekend, up 9.3% from $365.34 last year, with online sales accounting for $150.53.

The sales are “a promising sign for the economic recovery,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay.

The four-day holiday weekend sales rose 10% to a new record of $43 billion, according to Customer Growth Partners.

The weekend accounted for about 20% to 35% of retailers’ November sales, said Deutsche Bank analyst Charles Grom. Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Macy’s Inc.
M, +0.59%
and Costco Wholesale Corp.
COST, -0.53%
were among this weekend’s winners, he said.

However, retailers such as J.C. Penney Co.
JCP, -1.60%
that stuck to early morning openings may have lost out to rivals such as Macy’s that opened stores at midnight.

“Customers love the midnight openings,” he said, adding his team conducted store checks in five states and placed 400 calls to Wal-Mart and Target stores. “They helped to get in the younger customers. Best Buy appeared to be the most crowded.”

Best Buy, after last year lagging its rivals in aggressively offering TV deals early in the season, learned its lessons this year. It was consistently considered to have some of this year’s best Black Friday deals, including a Sharp 42” HDTV for $200 at Best Buy, originally at $500.

“We believe Best Buy was a relative winner across hardlines” retailers, said Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter. “It did a nice job securing exclusive deals and also effectively wove in the use of social media websites to offer specials.”

At Citigroup, analyst Deborah Weinswig raised her estimates on November same-store sales, which retailers will report on Thursday, for retailers including Kohl’s and Saks Inc.
SKS, +0.75%
. She lowered her estimate on Target.

Still, analysts cautioned retailers’ sales gain may come at the expense of profit-eroding margins. Warmer weather, while positive for traffic, also may hurt demand for cold weather merchandise.

Grom said he also was concerned that some retailers may have overbought specials and have more inventory than they’d like. A case in point, he said he was surprised to find a Wal-Mart doorbuster special, a 32-inch Emerson TV, still in stock at 7 a.m. on Friday.

Online, shoppers also showed their spending power, lifting sales 15% to $12.7 billion in the first 25 days of November, according to comScore.

Black Friday alone saw a 26% increase to $816 million in online sales, making it the heaviest online spending day to date this year. Thanksgiving Day also has gained importance for online sales, with sales rising 18% to $479 million.

Threefold jump in sales via smart phones

Results from another survey pointed to even bigger demand online. Online shopping on Thanksgiving Day rose 39%, followed by a 24% increase on Friday, according to IBM Coremetrics, adding that shoppers used their smart phones to do research with sales on mobile devices surging to 9.8% from 3.2%.

Attention on Monday is turned to so-called Cyber Monday, with retailers across the board releasing other deals to encourage shoppers to buy on the Internet to continue the season’s momentum.

MarketWatch/Andria Cheng

Crowds gather outside a Toys "R" Us store in Times Square.

Online traffic on Sunday saw an 18% increase, according to online comparison shopping site PriceGrabber, adding it forecast a 15% increase on Monday. Searches for electronics were up 26% on Sunday. Video games traffic was up 56%. Sporting goods traffic was up 32%.

Online holiday shopping no longer skews to the youngest consumers, according Deloitte’s annual holiday survey. While 18-24 year olds expect to do about one-third of their buying online, nearly the same percentage of those 45 and older plan to do so as well.

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